And it was queer how everyone expressed it in almost the same words: 'The atmosphere of this place - it's horrible. Like being in a lunatic asylum.' But perhaps I ought not to say everyone. Some of the English visitors who flitted
briefly through Spain, from hotel to hotel, seem not to have noticed
that there was anything wrong with the general atmosphere. The Duchess
of Atholl writes, I notice (Sunday Express, 17 October 1937):
I was in Valencia, Madrid, and Barcelona ... perfect order prevailed in all three towns without any display of force. All the hotels in which I stayed were not only 'normal' and 'decent', but extremely comfortable, in spite of the shortage of butter and coffee.
It is a peculiarity of English travellers that they do not really
believe in the existence of anything outside the smart hotels. I hope
they found some butter for the Duchess of Atholl.
G. Orwell, Homage to Catalonia (1938), 159
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